H.E. Pär Ahlberger
Ambassador of Sweden to Australia
Embassy of Sweden, Canberra
Your Excellency:
I write to you asking you to recommend to the King and Prime Minister that an appropriate civilian award for meritorious conduct be presented by Sweden to two young Swedish citizens who displayed admirable qualities when they recently witnessed a violent crime being committed.
Peter Jonsson and Karl-Frederik Arndt were graduate students at Stanford University, Palo Alto, California, USA. One evening, they were cycling to a party when they noticed a violent assault being committed.
When they were closer, they saw that an unconscious woman was being raped. They quickly took charge of the situation, caring for the injured woman until medical assistance could arrive and detaining the rapist until the police arrived.
Without their involvement, the woman could have died.
Without their involvement, the criminal could have raped another victim at another time, possibly fatally.
These young men demonstrated the admirable qualities of compassion, humanity, and moral courage which I have always associated with Sweden. I believe that it is altogether fitting that the nation that gave the world Raoul Wallenberg and Dag Hammarskjold should give a public honour to its exemplary citizens Peter Jonsson and Karl-Frederik Arndt.
Yours faithfully,
The Rev. Dr. Robert J. Faser
Hobart, Tasmania, Australia
The Swedes are specifically seeking to be not acknowledged, and are shunning publicly and would not like awards. It's not Swedish to take credit. The culture shuns any kind of aggrandizement and something like this would be seen as the right thing, and therefore not a special thing.
ReplyDeleteIt's a nice gesture, just not in line with their cultural outlook.